Safe Harbor banking on campaign for new shelter

Tenth Circuit Solicitor Chrissy Adams, left, gave Becky Callaham, executive director of Safe Harbor, a check for $5,000 during a news conference at the Oconee County Law Enforcement Center in Walhalla.

Anderson Independent Mail, S.C.

WALHALLA - Safe Harbor began a campaign Friday to raise $990,000 to buy and operate a shelter for victims of domestic abuse.

At a kickoff event at the Oconee County Law Enforcement Center, Safe Harbor's executive director, Becky Callaham, said the organization has signed an agreement to buy a house in Oconee County for use as the shelter.

The organization has a year to close on the deal and a plan to open it debt free with three years of operating expenses in the bank, she said, adding, "The Oconee County community has joined with us to make this happen."

The fundraising effort has already collected $280,000, according to Jim Gadd, Oconee Alliance director who, with local Realtor John Powell, heads the Oconee effort for Safe Harbor.

Gadd announced Friday that Bob and Fran Hanson of Seneca had pledged to match up to $100,000 of whatever was raised between Friday and Sept. 1.

Both Friday and at other recent meetings, Callaham and others have underscored the need for a shelter in Oconee County. Safe Harbor already operates shelters in Anderson and Greenville counties.

The tentative plan for the Oconee County shelter calls for the facility to have 15 to 20 beds with a kitchen and dining hall, a full-time shelter manager, a full-time shelter counselor, a full-time family advocate and rotating relief staff persons.

The goal is to open the shelter by 2015, but if the fundraising goals are met before that the shelter will open sooner, according to Callaham.

A 2008 survey showed that half the people in Oconee County knew someone involved in an abusive relationship, Callaham said, with 38 percent knowing a child could be in the midst of abusive situations.

"Victims couldn't get help," Callaham said. "In some cases they were afraid to seek help, and some didn't know where they could get help."

South Carolina ranks consistently high in cases of domestic violence, state Sen. Thomas Alexander of Walhalla said Friday. He said it affects an estimated 25 percent of women in the state at some point.

"But behind the numbers of the data are people we can help," said Alexander. Along with state Rep. Bill Sandifer of Seneca, he pledged to work against the problem at the state level.

At the ground level, however, working to establish the Safe Harbor shelter was an act of community caring, Alexander said.

"The need makes it important for us to come together as a community," he said. "Today is about meeting the needs of our neighbors, and it's important that Oconee County come together to meet this challenge."

Recent news headlines show the problem of domestic violence is still both chronic and acute in Oconee County.

Beginning with two cases of murder-suicide the last weekend of July 2012 and ending with a murder-suicide on Jan. 5, Oconee County saw six deaths connected with domestic violence.

The Jan. 5 deaths were a glaring example of the whole domestic abuse problem, according to Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw, because there had never been a call for help from that home.

"Domestic violence moved to the top of my agenda that day," Crenshaw told an audience of Safe Harbor supporters in January.

On Friday, Crenshaw said he feels that education, as well as strict enforcement and partnerships with other groups and other law enforcement entities, such as Safe Harbor and the solicitor's office, is a key to stopping this problem.

"We have committed to ask for maximum fines and sentences in all cases going forward," said Crenshaw.

"We also have a commitment to provide training for our officers so we can go forward with victimless prosecutions," he said. "If the victim refuses to testify, the sheriff's office has protocols in place that will allow us to go forward with that prosecution."

Law enforcement hasn't always treated domestic violence seriously, according to U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, a former solicitor who represents South Carolina's 4th Congressional District. And now, despite, the continuing problems, the general atmosphere is better and favors meeting the problem head on, he said.

"Ten to 12 years ago we had a tremendous problem," Gowdy said. "Women had nowhere to turn. They had to pursue the matter, if they did at all, in magistrate's court. Thank the Lord, those days are gone."

Accepting the shame of the state's high ranking in the number of incidents is not something South Carolina should tolerate, Gowdy said.

"If your state's football team ranked there, would you accept it?" Gowdy said. "What if the schools, the law enforcement, the DAs, had that kind of ranking?